Was the NRA Too Embarrassed To Stand Up For American Values?

Commentary by Richard W. Stevens, Esq.

Ashamed to be a firearms owner? If you are, then the
anti-gun propaganda is working. The National Rifle Association
was so embarrassed that the organization cut short its Denver,
Colorado, April 1999 convention. Does the NRA have the
courageous leadership necessary to defend the right to keep and
bear arms?

After two despicable teenagers murdered 13 people in their
high school near Denver on April 20, the NRA decided it would be
politically smart to shorten its imminent three day convention to
one day. What a mistake! By doing so, the NRA seemed to be
admitting that firearms were somehow a "cause" of the killer
teens' vicious crime. The NRA telegraphed its shame to the
world.

Certainly the eyes of the gun phobic world would have
focused on the NRA convention located so near the campus of
death. With the spotlight on, the NRA could have taught America
a lesson in courage. Even on short notice, the NRA could have
revamped the whole program. Set aside the duck blind seminar,
the camping tips and the sporting clays clinic. Instead, imagine
the news cameras capturing a celebration of America's highest
values and the benefits of firearms:

Fifty citizens, drawn from the NRA's "Armed Citizen" files,
each one personally telling the story of how they owe their lives
to having a firearm loaded and handy

Holocaust survivors and scholars testifying about how a
small squad of armed Nazis could round up and murder huge groups
of unarmed people -- and how the armed resistance fighters fought
back at the Warsaw Ghetto

Inspiring speakers like Charlton Heston, Alan Keyes, and
others, reminding America of its moral and religious roots, and
exhorting us to again honor the Ten Commandments and the Bill of
Rights as the standards that elevated America to greatness

Imagine an NRA Convention fearlessly presenting these ideas!
The gun prohibitionists would have nowhere to hide.

Responsible gun owners lost that chance to stand tall for
human rights, morality, and public safety. Meanwhile, folks like
Sarah Brady and Charlie Schumer don't speak up for teaching
strong moral values, such as the Sixth Commandment (forbidding
murder), in public schools. They don't demand that parents
explain their children's bizarre and anti-social behavior. They
don't rail against Hollywood's multi-million dollar mass murder
movies.

The gun prohibitionists instead wait for a well-publicized
disaster and then feed their political action machine. They
rattle on about magazine capacities, trigger locks, and "ugly"
guns. They seem to care only about their fear of guns, not
about the decrepit moral values of deranged youths.

We must not let the gun prohibitionists capitalize on the monstrous acts
of a couple of Nazi wannabes to build political power aimed at scrapping our
Constitutional rights. If the NRA won't do it, then you must join with us
and act now. Call JPFO at (800) 869-1884 or visit http://www.jpfo.org/.
Check out our strategies for destroying "gun control" -- and saving America.
This is a war we must win!